Ed Martin Believes He Will Be Confirmed as DC's US Attorney
Yesterday, Forward published US Attorney Ed Martin’s claim that he had no idea pardoned J6er Timothy Hale-Cusanelli had photos of himself dressed as Hitler, or that Hale-Cusanelli was described as a “Nazi sympathizer” by the Justice Department. But Hale-Cusanelli isn’t just any J6er to Martin. Until taking on the role of DC’s interim top prosecutor, Martin sat on the board of the Patriot Freedom Project (PFP), a nonprofit dedicated to helping J6ers, and founded in response to Hale-Cusanelli’s arrest.
Hale-Cusanelli and Martin have appeared at events together, both in person and virtually, numerous times over the last few years.
Since inauguration, I have written several stories about Martin. First, I covered Martin’s desire to pay reparations to J6ers for The Intercept. I also co-wrote a profile of Martin for Mother Jones with Dan Friedman; we quickly followed up with a story about Martin flying to Florida on a work day in March to speak at a fundraiser with Hale-Cusanelli. In attendance were Oath Keepers who have not received pardons, and are in the the process of appealing the convictions given to them by Martin’s office.
Maybe it is due to information overload, but the stories about the fundraiser and the reparations did not seem to break through into the news cycle. And even though places like NPR tracked Martin and Hale-Cusanelli’s relationship for years prior to the election, it seems like every couple of weeks, there is a new viral post about some aspect of Martin that has been covered.
So I thought it might be helpful to show some examples of Martin’s relationship with Hale-Cusanelli.
In July 2024, Martin directly addressed the Hitler photos with Hale-Cusanelli (Forward has since added this, as well as the fundraiser I covered for Mother Jones, to their story, but did not have either originally).
Tom Dreisbach, the NPR journalist who has followed Martin for several years, tweeted a screenshot of a September 2024 email to Martin about Hale-Cusanelli’s past antisemitic statements.
Dreisbach added that Martin replied, "NPR, the government-funded propaganda outlet that has lied at every turn about what happened on J6 is at it again."
As Dreisbach notes in his email, Hale-Cusanelli (and Martin) spoke at two events at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster; one in June 2024, and another in August 2024 (at the August event, Martin presented Hale-Cusanelli with an award).
Hale-Cusanelli and Martin also spoke at a February 2024 event with Patriot Club of America in Timonium, Maryland.
Paul Ingrassia, another speaker at the Maryland event, now works as the White House Liaison to the Department of Homeland Security. Ingrassia has a bit of a troubled past himself. Last summer, I wrote about his attendance at a Nick Fuentes rally for The Intercept; earlier this year, I wrote that he had misrepresented himself as an attorney before ever having taken the bar (at the time, Andrew and Tristan Tate were the star clients of the firm Ingrassia worked for. Since he joined the White House, numerous outlets have incorrectly—but reasonably—referred to Ingrassia as the Tates’ lawyer).
Originally, Ingrassia was the liaison to the Department of Justice (nearly causing me to believe I was hallucinating when I saw him at the DC jail on inauguration), but was removed from the role for allegedly overstepping boundaries.
Ingrassia also spoke alongside Hale-Cusanelli and Martin at both the June and August 2024 events in Bedminster.
Ingrassia, Hale-Cusanelli, and Martin all spoke at the Phyllis Schlafly Collegians Summit on June 25, 2024, days after the Bedminster event. The summit was hosted by Martin; like most of the other speakers, both Hale-Cusanelli and Ingrassia appeared virtually.
Hale-Cusanelli attended the Liberty Inaugural Ball, and posted several photos with Martin. And, as I have previously covered, Hale-Cusanelli has repeatedly acted as though he is a point of contact for Martin. “If you’re a January 6 defendant, and your prosecutor hasn’t been fired by next week, message me,” Hale-Cusanelli posted on X February 1. A week later, he followed up: “If you’re a January 6 defendant please name your prosecutor(s) here.”
Several J6ers I talked to about Martin’s disavowal of Hale-Cusanelli (none of whom wanted to be named), said they did not believe Martin’s claim. By all accounts, and according to their own public profiles, Martin is very familiar with Hale-Cusanelli. So why pretend otherwise?
President Trump has nominated Martin to permanently keep his interim role of US Attorney, which means Martin will have a confirmation hearing. Martin is polarizing, and frankly not very qualified for the position, so association with a guy who has Hitler cosplay photos might not play well.
Outside of DC, most people are likely unaware that the US attorney for the District is also effectively the city’s district attorney. So far, Martin has not been popular with the locals (Washington City Paper titled a write up of one of Martin’s public events . U.S. Attorney Ed Martin Better Watch His Mouth in D.C.).
Last month, I went to a Metropolitan Police Department public safety meeting where Martin was a guest speaker. During his speech, Martin made it clear he believes he will be confirmed.
While it was not as eventful as his other local event, I have included a video of his speech, and audio of the speech and Q&A.
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